A personal blog from librarian who is progressive and pagan, discussing politics, current events, and books.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Troy Davis

If this country doesn't torture, I would hope that it also doesn't execute people when there is a real chance the prisoner may be innocent. I don't know if Troy Davis is innocent or not, but I do know 7 of 9 witnesses have recanted their testimony, and that eyewitness testimony is being looked at more and more skeptically. Davis has appealed about as far as he can go, and they have failed, I think mostly on technical reasons.

I'm opposed to the death penalty, anyway, because those sentenced are mostly poor and black, leading one to doubt the justice of it. And, simply, there have been so many people exonerated by DNA evidence that we risk executing the innocent, and that's intolerable.